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Editorial

Medicaid has a problem, but block grants won’t solve it

  November 25, 2011

It’s become a consensus position among the Republican presidential candidates that Medicaid, a federal entitlement program best known for providing health care to the poor, should be turned over to the states as a block-grant program. States know their own needs, the logic goes, and will use fixed grants creatively and efficiency - as opposed to a federal bureaucracy that writes checks on behalf of all who qualify. But if only it were that simple.

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